Journal of Political Sciences & Public Affairs
Open Access

Abstract

The Media as a Determinant of Voting Behavior in Russian Elections from 2003?2011:Empirical Evidence Based on a Latent Class Approach

Svetlana Petri* and Christian H.C.A. Henning

The media in Russia has become an attractive tool for influencing voting be- havior and the probability that the ruling party wins elections. Using a latent class approach for probabilistic voting modeling, we estimate cross-sectional data from the Russian parliamentary elections from 2003-2011 to determine empirical evidence of media capture on Russian television on the micro-level. Using TV con- sumption to generate latent heterogeneity, we investigate the impact of daily TV watching on the likelihood that voters will vote for the government party (United Russia) and their policy, non-policy and retrospective voting motives. In this sense, the non-policy motive based on party identity becomes progressively more relevant; the increase in this motive is stronger for voters watching more TV. Furthermore, the government party obtains substantial advantages in the voting probability due to TV consumption over time.

Published Date: 2021-09-13;